My Take on Tim's September 2015 Tag - Butterfly Card

*** If you are looking for my Stampotique Halloween Card, please click on the link or scroll down ~ Crazy me did 2 posts in one day!

For this month I went totally off the grid.  I struggled with how to duplicate the beauty of this tag immensely, until I came to the conclusion that I didn't HAVE to copy Tim's tag, but I could be inspired by it!  What a revelation!

So, here is my interpretation of Tim's September 2015 Tag :

How I made my Card:
White Card Base
Black Cardstock
Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations French Flight, #659884
FLY stamp from Redlead Paperworks (set I used is discontinued)
Ranger Glossy Paper
Ranger Archival Ink in Jet Black
Assorted Alcohol Inks (Ranger, TRIA refills, Pinata Inks)
Alcohol Ink Applicator Tool
Alcohol Blending Fluid
Silver Paper
Pop Dots
2 Black Brads

First I alcohol inked my glossy paper,  After putting on my rubber gloves, I dripped ink, added blending solution, used the ink blending tool, dripped more ink and generally had a great time.  When

I was finished I had 2 totally different sheets bursting with the vibrant colors of alcohol ink. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the sheet I used, but here are some of the butterflies I cut out using the French Flight die set.

I choose 3 butterflies and set then aside.  I took a strip of silver paper and stamped the word FLY on it to simulate the word band that Tim used on his tag.  I attached that to the black cardstock, using the black brads, that I was going to use to mount my butterflies.  I know I have Ranger's Black Mounting Foam somewhere in this mess, but I couldn't find it, so I settled for standard white pop dots.  I dotted the back of my butterflies and adhered them to the panel of black cardstock.  Lastly, I glued the black panel to my white card base.

There you have it.  While I wished I could have duplicated that background Tim made using the Texture Paste I don't have any, but no fear, that and the frosted film are on the wish list.  I hope you enjoyed my little tutorial ~ Christi

 

Ages ago I wrote a little blog post on Alcohol Inks - you can take a look at it HERE.

I am entering my Butterfly Card in the following challenges:
Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2015 - September
Use Your Stuff - #193, Markers/Inks
Artistic Inspirations Challenge Blog - Anything Goes/Twist of Black
Craftin Desert Divas - Things with Wings
Addicted to Stamps - #110, Butterflies
Less is More - #243, Something Shiny 
Collage Obsession - Trio

Stampotique "Early Halloween" card

To me, there is no such thing as "early Halloween" - I think it should be celebrated all year long! Anyway, I was lucky enough to get a few Stampotique stamps recently and they definitely look spooky enough to use for Halloween, so here is my card:

What I Used to Make my Card:
White Card (square 5" x 5")
Stampotique "Prom Queen" Stamp, #6051
Ranger Archival ink in Jet Black
Assorted Gel Pens
Diamond Stickles
Wink of Stella in Silver
Computer Generated Phrase
Scrap Black Paper
Puffy Sparkly Bat sticker from the Dollar Tree

I was most concerned with stamping right on the square card, but thankfully, it came out fine (I always fear I am going to mess up terrible when I am stamping right on the item).  I then colored her using various gel inks, all different kinds and manufacturers.  I "dotted" around the card with the silver Wink of Stella to add some texture and covered

her skirt with the Diamond Stickles for some glitz.  I chose the font for the saying, printed it out on white card, matted it on black card and attached it to the base card.  Lastly, I added the bat sticker to give the card a bit more Halloween look to it

This was a very fun and easy card, and I had a blast coloring her in with all of my neglected gel pens. I hope you can see how pretty she looks.  

I would like to enter my Early Halloween Card in the following Challenges:
SDC214 - Stampotique's Early Halloween
Glitter 'n Sparkle - Add Lots of Glitter 'n Sparkle
Southern Girls Challenge - Whimsical, Cute and/or fun
Wags 'n Whiskers - #162 Glitter/Sparkle
Simon Says Stamp Wednesdays Challenge - No Designer Paper
Creatalicious Challenges - #79, Halloween

Thank you for stopping by and tell me if you like the new font - is it easier to read?? ~ Christi

Are you telling me NO ONE is feeling Sassy?!?!?

Come on people! TWOFERS has an AWESOME gift certificate up for grabs and we need some entries!!

($20 bucks to spend at Alleystamps!)

You still have a few days to get your Sass on ~ so whip out those stamps and get to it! Please, it's my challenge and if no on enters my heart will be broken. . .ok, maybe not THAT drastic, but I'll be sad.

Enter your Sassy card (yup, only need ONE card now) HERE

Thank you ~ Christi 

Time to get Sassy!

Before I get to the cards, I want to shout out to all my followers & friends that we need a bit of help over at Challenges for Days.  We are looking for someone to handle the management of the Monday list and all you need is about an hour a week, a computer and a Blogger account.  If you are interested, please email Zoe at zoechaos@icloud.com if you can help ~ Thanks! Now, on with the show!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Welcome to the fourth challenge by Twofers - this time we want you to get SASSY!  We have decided on a few rule updates, which are: now, you only need to create ONE project and we have an awesome sponsor, Alleystamp.  The wonderful owner, Janine, has given us a $20 Gift Certificate for use at her store to give to the winner of our challenge - how AMAZING is that!! All the more reason to come and play with us!

I have fallen in LOVE with Tim Holtz's Bird Crazy (and I am not alone judging from the cards I am seeing all over the internet) and I also love sassy, snarky, fun sayings.  Put them together and you get this:

How I made my Card:
White Card Base
Tim Holtz "Crazy Birds", #CMS212
Sizzix Framelits Crazy Birds, #660954
Dylusions "Don't Hold Back", #DYR44505
140lb Water Color Paper
Ranger Archival Ink in Jet Black
Distress Markers Squeezed Lemon, Cracked Pistachio & Twisted Citron
Core'dinations Brights Paper - green
Water Color Brush

This card was really simple; so simple I actually made 3 different ones that I am sure will debut at another time.  This was actually the first one I made and I chose it since I can truly relate to the little bird and his or her desire!  I stamped the Crazy Bird on the water color paper, colored it using the Distress Markers (my first time using the Twisted Citron marker - I didn't think I'd like the color, but it isn't as neon as I thought!) listed above and I used my heat gun in between layers of color. It does make a difference and it's much easier to blend the colors.

Once that was done, I wanted to die cut my bird. If you have this die set it can be quite a pain in the butt to figure out which dies go to which bird, so I used a tip that I read on Tim's Blog (from a follower, not Tim) who had made it much easier to use this die set by numbering the birds and storing the dies for each bird in a numbered bag.  That has MY name written all over it! So, one day I sat and did just that, making it very easy to see that the bird I used was #3 and find the coordinating die.  All I did was cut the entire bird (although no matter how much I try to line the die with the stamp, it always comes out a tad off center :::sigh:::) and glue him on the green cover.

I used one of the three Dylusions sets I have for the sentiment (another first time use!), stamped it using Jet Black ink, trimmed it and attached it.  So there you go ~ I am getting ready to start packing for a trip that I will be home from by the time this posts - LOL - the internet is a wonderful thing :) Fondly, Christi

Another look :)

I would like to enter my Sassy Bird in the following challenges:
Aud Sentiments - #140, Anything Goes with a Sentiment

A Bit More Time to Craft - #4, Anything Goes

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Die Crazy

Left of Centre - No Designer Papers

Cities ~ TWOFERS Challenge #3

Before I get to the cards, I want to shout out to all my followers & friends that we need a bit of help over at Challenges for Days.  We are looking for someone to handle the management of the Monday list and all you need is about an hour a week, a computer and a Blogger account.  If you are interested, please email Zoe at zoechaos@icloud.com if you can help ~ Thanks! Now, on with the show!

Welcome to TWOFERS Challenge #3! The theme this time is Cities and I admit I struggled with this for a bit.  I had an idea what I wanted to do, but was unsure how to go about it.  Luckily, my muse woke up and I created these two cards:

As per usual, I am going to refer to each card separately, this time I am using the sentiments. So, one card is A Happy Hello, the other Hello Friend.  I actually cut out a bunch of the buildings using the Silhouette in pastel colors. For some reason I have had Florida on my mind, and these colors remind me of Florida.  Anyway, as you can see the only difference, besides the different buildings and colors, is the sentiment.

What I Used to Make A Happy Hello:
Core'dinations Pastel Cardstock
White Card Base
Silhouette Cameo & Cut File #66115
SU! set, All Year Cheer I, #102189, a happy hello stamp (disc)
Oblong Scallop Punches from Family Treasure
Ranger Archival Ink in Jet Black
Pop Dots
Scrap of green card for the sentiment

I used the same method to make each card. I chose the buildings I wanted to use, pop dotted them on the card base, stamped the sentiment and them used the scalloped oval punches to punch the sentiment out.  I glued the greeting directly on the Hello Friend card, while I pop dotted it onto the A Happy Hello card.

What I Used to Make Hello Friend:
Core'dinations Pastel Cardstock
White Card Base
Silhouette Cameo & Cut File #66115
Impression Obsession Alesa Baker Stamp, Hello Friend
Oblong Scallop Punches from Family Treasure
Ranger Archival Ink in Jet Black
Pop Dots
Scrap of Vanilla for sentiment

Thanks SO much for stopping by and checking out my Cities. I do hope you will get your craft on and join us - after all, you have 2 weeks! I am entering my cards in the challenges below (since the 2 cards I made are so similar, I am entering them both in the same challenges) ~ Thanks! Christi

Crafty Catz - #291, Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Make it Colorful
Creative Moments - #76, Anything Goes/Use a Sentiment
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - A Trio of Colors
Crafty Cardmakers - #146, No Patterned Paper

August Card Chain Challenge Reveal ~ Sun Card

Hi all! This my Card Chain Challenge August card. My send to partner this month was Dawn from New Zealand and you can go to her lovely blog by clicking here. I really struggled with this month and I am not sure why.  It seemed my creative muse took a summer vacation!  After many restless nights, I decided to design my card based on the sketch and friendship, two of the many choices we had this month to use when making our cards. This is the sketch:

My sending partner for CCC this month is Arlene, please check out her wonderful blog, A Bit of this and That, she has some absolutely stunning cards! And the card to the left is the one she sent me - You can't see it, but the entire card has subtle glitter on it and the "hello" and star are cut of glittered paper! Scrumptious!



Now, on to my card, the one I sent Dawn:

It's light, but I wanted to show the sparkle - there is a darker pic below

What I Used to Make my Card:
White Cardstock Base
Glitter Cardstock in Yellow & Orange
Silhouette Cameo & Cut File #61845
"Hello Friend" stamp, Alesa Baker for Impression Obsession
Gold Paper
Ranger Archival Ink in Jet Black
1" Circle Punch
Gold Dragonfly Sequin
Wink of Stella in Clear

I cut the sun Silhouette Cut file out twice, in both the orange & yellow glitter cardstock.  I glued the yellow sun to the card base and then took the positive cut outs, the rays, from the orange sun, and pieced those where the rays of the yellow sun were.  Reading this it seems as clear as mud, but I know you'll understand (plus the picture kinda explains it all).  I put the card under a heavy tile that I have on my desk for this purpose and let it dry overnight.

Meanwhile, I then stamped my sentiment (how cute is this stamp? I needed a something to put on my CCC cards and this adorable "hello friend" fit the bill perfectly) on some gold cardstock and used a circle punch to punch it out.  I had originally tried using gold vellum because I didn't want the circle to obscure the sun, but, the vellum crinkled horribly when I tried to attach it, so I used the gold paper instead. The sequin dragonfly was something I have had for years, literally. I thought that little bug made the card.  Since the sun was SO bright, the little left over parts of the card base seemed kinda dull, so I swiped them with the Wink of Stella pen in clear to finish the card off. 

Another look - I think you can see the detail better in this dark one. . .

I hope you enjoyed my tutorial and my Sun card.  Please consider becoming a follower to help me meet my goal of 100 new followers in 2015 (I am only about 25 people shy of my goal!) I'd really appreciate it. Hope you are having a fabulous day! OH! I volunteer at a blog called Challenges for Days and we are in need of some help - please go here if you can spare an hour a week to get more details ~ Christi

I would like to enter my Sun Card in the following challenges:
Clear it Out Challenge - Anything Goes
The Cheerful Stamp Pad - #119, Remembering Summer
Frilly & Funkie - A Touch of Gold